SERBIA DAILY No9

W Daily e-newspaper

• N° 9 • Belgrade, May 9, 2016

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WESTERN BALKANS e-MEDIA GROUP

Army Day and Victory Day Celebrations in Serbia

1,300 soldiers and members of the Serbian Ministry of Defense take part in the parade, with more than 40 different types of weapons and military equipment on display

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ictory Day, a holiday that commemorates the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union at the end of Second World War, is celebrated today in Serbia along with members of the Serbian Army celebrating the Army Day in Zrenjanin, northern Serbia.

1,300 soldiers and members of the Serbian Ministry of Defense take part in the parade, with more than 40 different types of weapons and military equip-

Irinej, Serbian Patriarch: We still do not know what happened, or more precisely, for now we can just assume what happened in New York on Easter when St. Sava church burnt down. The FBI could help. They are the most competent to untie this knot

ment on display.

"The static part of the celebration will showcase modernized weapons and military equipment, some for the first time," the Ministry of Defense reported in a statement.

"What's new is that soldiers serving on a voluntary basis will for the first time march under weapons, as part of the infantry march-past," reads the statement.

The Victory Day is mostly celebrated on

Srdjan Verbic, Minister of Education: Competition for science and research projects was cancelled. Apparently we are unable to maintain human capacities and the salaries of all employees in the science sector while boosting scientific quality and competitiveness

May 9 in former Soviet republics, and some Slavic countries, while some other countries commemorate the victory in WWII day before, on May 8.

Today is also the Europe Day, in commemoration of the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, a proposal put forward by then French foreign minister Robert Schuman to place Franco-German production of coal and steel under one common High Authority.

Dusan Kozarev, Office for Kosovo: There is no need to discriminate against citizens in Kosovo who have passports issued by the Coordination Administration of the Serbian Interior Ministry. Those passports were practically a form of protection

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Six New Ministers in Government Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic says there will be at least six new ministers in the next government, adding it is still a question whether he will enter negotiations on a coalition with anyone

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sked which departments are critical, the prime minister Vucic says in an interview to the Blic daily that the ministries of agriculture, education and health are very important.

As for the first task of the new government, Vucic says this will be everything we need to do to get a fourth and fifth review of the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund.

As the second task, he mentions the steel mill Zelezara Smederevo, and the third - the copper smelter RTB Bor.

The prime minister says his long-term goal is to ensure that by 2020 "we can say that we have had an annual GDP growth, cumulatively, always over two or three percent, for six years in a row, which would mean that, thanks to the difficult reforms and the people that accepted and understood them, we have secured a golden age for Serbia".

Asked when he will start negotiations on a coalition, the Serbian prime minister says: "Whether we will start negotiations at all - that is the question. We will see."

Seats to be Distributed by May 15 The Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) has to distribute seats to newly elected MPs by May 15, thus clearing the way for an inaugural parliamentary session.

According to the schedule of electoral activities, RIK has to distribute the seats no longer than 10 days from the announcement of the final election

results in the ascending order starting from those who top the lists.

Under the Constitution, the inaugural session is called by the speaker of the previous parliament - Maja Gojkovic, and the session is then to be held within 30 days from the declaration of the final election results.

Anniversary of Bombing Chinese Embassy in Belgrade A wreath-laying ceremony marked on Saturday 17 years since the bombing of the Chinese Embassy building in Belgrade, with the country's Ambassador Li Manchang saying on the occasion that China would never forget the past, but would look to the future as people should live in peace and harmony.

Li thanked the Serbian government for supporting China's core interests, noting that China supports Serbia as well.

Serbia is a true friend - this has always been and will be the case, said

Manchang, who laid the wreaths together with Belgrade City Manager Goran Vesic and President of the Journalists' Association of Serbia Ljiljana Smajlovic, in memory of the three Chinese journalists who died in the air attack.

Vesic said that a Chinese culture center would be built at the site of the previous embassy building.

The Chinese Embassy in New Belgrade was struck with three missiles during the NATO bombing, although it was clearly marked as a building of diplomatic importance.

Early to Discuss Support for Nikolic Serbian Prime Minister and leader of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Aleksandar Vucic says it is still early to talk about whether he will support Tomislav Nikolic in the 2017 presidential race.

In an interview, published in the Blic daily, Vucic highlights that President Nikolic has acted responsibly, adhered to the Constitution and have not made things harder for the Serbian government, although he could do that and boost his popularity ratings.

"He backed the tough government

measures, did not aspire to score trivial political points for himself. We did not have the same take on certain issues, but he never made a show out of that," Vucic said.

Asked whom he will support if SNS official Zorana Mihajlovic decides to run for the president, he replied: "The SNS will have just one candidate in the presidential election, not two."

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic stepped down as SNS leader after winning the 2012 election.

Daily

Markers

BY EMIR SALIHOVIC EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Unsettled Disputes Make Problems Worse

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s if it was not enough, after Croatia repeatedly put obstacles to Serbia in relation to opening of the famous "chapter 23" in Serbia's EU accession talks, the latest bad news is that Bulgaria and Romania may also make hard times for Serbia in that regard.

As one of Croatia's complaints was in regard to position and representation of Croatian minority in Serbia, especially in the northern province of Vojvodina, so Bulgarians and Romanians are now looking into situation of their own ethnic minorities.

And none of it is a new thing, or something that should surprise us.

The issues related to ethnic minorities had plagued Serbia for long time, since the dissolution of Yugoslavia until now. The chaos of 1990s naturally led to consolidation of ethnic tribes, and disturbed by all the violence on ethnic basis which ravaged the whole of former country, little attention was given to "others". It was necessary to secure and consolidate your own borders and privileges and all the minorities, anywhere, knew that very well and stayed low-key as quiet as possible, not to disturb the majority around it.

Let us remind ourselves of Serb minority in Croatia today, who still fight to have Cyrillic script in public places in Vukovar, for example.

The situation with Croatia, and possibly Bulgaria and Romania too, is simply the result of the fact that the issue of minorities and their rights and well being as citizens of the country was just neglected for too long.

However, blocking your neighbor in trying to complete some important strategic task is not something which will improve the resolution of the issue.

Bilateral negotiations, mentioned by Croatian president, could be much better solution, than acting from shadow via third party.

And Serbia's accession to EU will definitely do much more to improvement of position of minorities in question than anything else. Neighbors should know that, and if they were wise, they would help Serbia on its EU path, and not obstruct it.

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PINION

On Politics and Marketing The recent unification of opposition is a good example how the desire for profit can lead even discordant Serbs to unite

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t's been often said in Serbia that the whole of politics got SERBIA DAILY CONTRIBUTOR reduced to marketing. It is a general opinion (not accidentally) that political party programs were written with the help from marketing agencies. The agency research and analyze what are the biggest fears, worries, desires and hopes among the citizens. After that, the programs are written in such a way as to give promises that the particular party will fight all those things that worries the citizens, and that it will advocate and stand for that what the citizens desire.

Although the market is not such a perfect regulatory mechanism, as advocates of neo-liberalism would like us to think, maybe it wouldn't be bad if such a marketing approach to politics would actually lead to concrete actions which protect citizens from what fears them, and create that the citizens crave for. However, as soon as the elections pass by it seems as if the politicians themselves often forget the very program of their own political party.

The main idea of the marketing system is that the market is a mechanism that automatically distinguishes the highest quality and puts it forward. It is assumed that the consumers are rational, want high quality products and services, and that the winners in the market competition will be those who strive the most and have the highest quality to offer. It sounds quite logical.

But, something happened in the field that the mechanism stopped providing the desired results. A factor appeared which totally turned the market logic upside down. That factor is - marketing.

Of course, marketing always existed, but it had a particular place in that system. But, since it became a dominant force in the market, all that was promised to us by Ayn Rand, Milton Friedman and Ludwig von Mises failed to happen. Marketing prevailed, at the expense of quality. And not that it only positioned itself as the force stronger than the market itself, but due to its power the very rationality of the consumer was put into question.

The producer of fruit juices, for instance, noticed that if he reduce the investments into the quality of juices, and

BY NEBOJSA KOSTIC

redirect that money into marketing, that product will sell better, regardless of its lower quality. The producer of home appliances also realized that is the way to higher profits. He realized that if he produces equipment that doesn't last that long, the buyers will come more often and leave more money. The owner of a TV station realized that he will make more money if he broadcasts kitsch program, instead of high quality program. In the same way, a politician figured it out that the game is in the good marketing and eyeing opportunities to make some big bucks. Political ideas, values, culture - became the matter of the past.

One of the "mantras" of neo-liberalism is that the politics should be led by businessmen as they already proved as people able to implement plans and achieve goals. It is true they are able for that. They learned that the game is to be won by reducing the quality of goods, and additional investment into marketing, and they introduce that same logic into politics. Also, every good businessman knows that the ultimate goal of business is profit. But, when the profit enters politics, the politics cease to be oriented toward society and becomes oriented toward profit.

In Serbia, businessmen lead politics indirectly or directly.

Some entered politics straight from the business chair, while some remained in shadow, financing the political parties and their campaigns.

Business, as it is, is not bad, and plays important role in society. But what happened over here is that the business ate the politics, similarly as in previous examples marketing ate the market itself.

However, maybe there can be some good in it. The whole of history testifies that Serbs were discordant nation. Even during the world wars, when we were attacked by many times more powerful opponents, we still divided between partisans and chetniks and fought among ourselves.

But it seems there is a factor that may change it. The recent unification of opposition is a good example how the desire for profit can lead even to unification of Serbs. Maybe profit is that mystical factor that was missing from Serb national organism, in order for it to turn toward unity and cooperation. Maybe Ayn Rand deserves to be pictured on one of our banknotes, but her Atlas should definitely stand on our coat-of-arms, instead of cross with four Bs.

Publisher: WESTERN BALKANS e-MEDIA GROUP z POENTA d.o.o. Sarajevo, Augusta Brauna 3 z Editor - in - Chief: Emir Salihovic z Editors: VLASTIMIR MIJOVIC, AMRA ZIMIC, RASID KRUPALIJA, DANIJELA MRKIC, SANJA LJUBICIC z Director: Amra Zimic z Office Assistant: VERICA GRAOVAC, MUSTAFA BAHTANOVIC, DTP: Bekir Tvrtkovic z Marketing: KAROLINA MIHAJLOVIC z GSM: 00 381 61 2768568, 00 381 11 4086 992, serbiadaily@sbb.rs

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Belgrade Reacts to Mogherini's Statement A unilateral redrawing of Belgrade-Pristina agreements is completely unacceptable to Serbia, Marko Djuric, head of Serbian Government's Office for Kosovo has said

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juric was commenting on a statement made by EU foreign policy and security chief Federica Mogherini, who was visiting Pristina last week, regarding the future Community of Serb Municipalities in Kosovo.

"No one is going to redraw what we agreed on August 25 (2015)," Djuric told Pink TV, after Mogherini said in Pristina that the Community of Serb Municipalities "will not be a parallel structure of authority and that it does not put Kosovo's 'territorial integrity' into question."

"Today we took a big step forward. That means that Kosovo is Europe and that what we are doing is the European integration of Kosovo. This is a long, hard and complicated road," Mogherini said at a news conference attended by EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos and Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa.

Avramopoulos also said that "our progress report confirms that Kosovo has met all the requirements of the visa liberalization roadmap, on the understanding, of course, that by the day of adoption of this proposal by the European Parliament and Council, Kosovo will have ratified the border agreement with Montenegro and strengthened its track record in the fight against corruption and organised crime."

Marko Djuric replied by saying: "We very much respect your role but we will not accept you or anyone else redrawing what has been agreed unambiguously in Brussels," adding that his statement was "a message to the internation-

Aleksandar Vucic and Federica Mogherini in Belgrade

al community and Mogherini, who acts as a facilitator in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue."

That particularly applies to the agreements from August 25, 2015 under which the Statute of the Community (ZSO) was to be formulated in four months' time, he said.

"Serbia is not giving up on the Community of Serb Municipalities being

formed in the manner agreed. We will not allow a redrawing of what has been achieved in painstaking dialogue," Djuric said.

The Serbian official also added that "Belgrade does not care what decision the constitutional court in Pristina made when it assessed the decision to establish the ZSO on the initiative of the (Kosovo Assembly) opposition."

Businessman's Son Hits Journalist With His Car The police in Pancevo, northeast of Belgrade, have arrested 29-year-old Milan T. on suspicion that he deliberately hit a journalist with his car. The victim was Aleksandar Cupic, editor-in-chief of the E-Vrsac website.

The suspect has been charged with causing general danger and inflicting bodily harm, and has been taken before the prosecution, the local police in Pancevo said in a statement carried by the Beta angecy.

Cupic said earlier that he was in the village of Parta, near Vrsac, along with a crew from TV Kovacica, when the inci-

dent happened. He said the man behind the wheel of the vehicle that hit him was Milan Tikic, the son of local businessman Dragan Tikic.

"I was standing on the side of the road when a black pickup truck came along, driving on the left, instead of the right side of the road, and heading in my direction. I thought he was going to exit to an access road, and realized at the last moment he was headed directly toward me. I managed to jump a little to the side, but he hit me and threw me several meters from the hood," Cupic recounted his experience.

The journalist believes the incident was an attempt on his life. He explained he has been "intensively writing investigative articles over the past month and a half" about Dragan Tikic's links with politicians.

Cupic, who fainted shortly after the incident and was held in a local hospital in Vrsac for three days for observation, said he reported the case to the police and expected it to be qualified as an attempted murder.

He told the Beta agency that he was discharged from the hospital on his own initiative.

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Would Bulgaria and Romania Block Serbia Too?

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Bulgaria and Romania "could soon deliver their demands in order to approve the opening of chapter 23" in Serbia's EU accession talks, writes a Belgrade daily

ccording to Vecernje Novosti, these two countries will in this way join Croatia, which is already blocking this chapter.

Bulgarian and Romanian demands will concern "improving the rights of their ethnic minorities in Serbia" - while Bucharest also wants "the Vlach issue" resolved, and guaranteed seats in parliament for their representatives.

The newspaper said it learned that these two countries are the only EU members who have "quietly backed" Croatia's policy toward Serbia.

Croatia's envoys have been lobbying in European capitals for weeks, seeking support for their decision to block the chapter until Belgrade fulfills Zagreb's demands, related to the position of ethnic Croats in Serbia, the country's cooperation with the Hague Tribunal, and its jurisdiction in prosecuting war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia.

Bulgaria and Romania are now revisiting their old demands, "above all, increased participation of their (ethnic minorities') representatives in all state administration organs in Serbia," according to the article.

But unlike Croatia - "they are willing to compromise," writes the daily, adding that, "in case of great pressure from EU's most powerful members, they will after all vote in favor of opening chapter 23, but ask that their demands be built into the transitional criteria and fulfilled during the negotiating process."

Officials in Belgrade are saying that Serbia will continue with its good-neighborly policy and try to solve all open issues with neighboring countries through bilateral discussions, the article concluded.

Vlachs of Eastern Serbia, performing traditional dances

Croatian Blockade of Serbia May Have Boomerang Effect The long lasting blockade of a country in accession negotiations process with the European Union could cause a boomerang effect, former Croatian Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said commenting Zagreb's decision to block EU-Serbia talks due to bilateral issues. In the column for Slovenian daily Dnevnik Kosor suggested that actual Croatian government should initiate bilateral negotiations with Belgrade.

This week Croatian representatives in the European Commission have repeatedly blocked the opening of Chapter 23 (the rule of law) in Serbia-EU negotiations. They have demanded Serbia to respect minority rights, "fully cooperate" with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former

Yugoslavia and give up from universal jurisdiction in war crimes processing.

Kosor recalled there are also opened questions considering disputed parts of the frontier between Serbia and Croatia.

In Kosor's opinion, the mutual experience of Slovenia and Croatia with regard to latter's accession talks with the EU before it become a member state in 2013 could be useful for Serbia. She welcomed Belgrade's decision to "turn to Europe after tragic past". However, she noted that accession process is not easy because "EU does not show enthusiasm considering enlargement, despite the idea of it is still alive".

Kosor recalled that Slovenia has blocked 14 out of 35 chapters in

Croatia-EU accession talks due to frontier problems at a time. "They (Brussels) told me: 'when you fulfill everything that members expect from you you will finish negotiations and if you don't fulfill it you would not finish it", Kosor underlined.

"Croatia and Slovenia could both witness that there are no and cannot be connivances during negotiations, and that there's a need to fulfill all the criteria. And there are no connivances‌ because all the reforms are being introduced because of a candidate country, rather than European Union", Kosor concluded.

During Serbia-EU accession talks Croatia has a chance to realize its national interest with regard to opened questions, she added.

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Opposition Maintains Pressure over Election Flaws

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Four Serbian opposition coalitions are continuing to demand that the authorities investigate all alleged irregularities at the recent parliamentary polls and plan to ask for an overhaul of election law

he four opposition coalitions said they will not drop their demand for all the alleged irregularities to be fully investigated by the Republic Electoral Commission, RIK, even though all of them made it into parliament at the April 24 polls, writes Sasa Dragojlo for BIRN. The coalitions around the Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Enough is Enough movement and the Democratic Party of Serbia-Dveri alliance also said they will also demand reforms of Serbia's election legislation, which they claim is full of systematic errors.

Bosko Obradovic, the president of the far-right Dveri, told BIRN that the opposition will produce a final report on the parliamentary election which will sum up all the reports issued by the RIK. It will also ask to see all the RIK's election documents, voter lists and polling station records.

"In the end, we will suggest the reform of the entire electoral legislation so that these things do not happen again," Obradovic said.

After the election on April 24, the four opposition groups accused the ruling

Serbian Progressive Party of rigging the elections and demanded the resignations of RIK president Dejan Djurdjevic and the director of the Institute of Statistics, Miladin Kovacevic.

They also staged a protest in Belgrade which attracted several thousand supporters.

They claim that there were numerous pieces of evidence suggesting that the elections were rigged, claiming that dead people and non-existent citizens had voted and ballot boxes had been tampered with.

Their suspicions of fraud were further raised by the fact that the president of the RIK, Dejan Djurdjevic, is a member of the Serbian Progressive Party, which won the elections.

The day after the polls, Djurdjevic attended a Progressive Party presidency meeting.

Tamara Spaic, a spokesperson for the Enough is Enough movement, told BIRN that the "professionalization of the RIK" was essential for holding free elections.

"You cannot have the Republic Electoral Commission being a party body," Spaic said.

Although the four opposition coalitions

have different ideologies, they said they united temporarily to defend democracy.

However, both Obradovic and Spaic said that although they would continue to cooperate on similar issues, they will not forge any political alliance because their differences are too great.

"We need to be realistic. We can cooperate on numerous things, but we need to be aware of our strong political disagreements," Obradovic said.

According to the RIK's preliminary results from April 24, with 99.82 per cent of the ballots counted, the Serbian Progressive Party won 48.24 per cent of the votes.

Five other coalitions made it past the five per cent threshold necessary to get into parliament - the Socialist Party (10.96 per cent), the Serbian Radical Party (8.11 per cent), the Democratic Party (6.03 per cent), the Enough is Enough movement (6.03 per cent) and the Social Democratic Party (5.02 per cent).

Voting was conducted again on Wednesday at 15 polling stations due to complaints of irregularities. The results ensured that the Democratic Party of SerbiaDveri coalition also got into parliament.

Kosovo and Serbia Separate at UEFA Tournaments The Kosovo Football Federation (FFK) and the Serbian Football Union should try to separate their teams and prevent their face-to-face contacts at UEFA tournaments, FFK Secretary-General Eroll Salihu told TASS. Earlier, Serbia's Youth and Sports Minister Vanja Udovicic told the Serbian news agency TANJUG that the Serbian Football Union would challenge the UEFA decision to admit FFK into the UEFA

at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"We have good relations with the Serbian Football Union and we are going to resolve the question of separation of our teams. I believe that for the moment it would be appropriate to avoid direct contacts with each other. We are going to work with our clubs and particularly with our fans in future," Salihu said.

An UEFA congress held in Budapest voted for Kosovo's admittance to UEFA

on May 3. Twenty-eight UEFA members against 24 who were opposed to the decision (including Russia) voted for Kosovo's admission. The FFK may now join FIFA and take part in 2018 World Cup qualifiers to be hosted by Russia.

The partly recognized Republic of Kosovo is not a United Nations member.

Sixty-four countries, including Russia, China, India and Brazil, have not recognized Kosovo's independence.

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Vucic Receives KKR's David Petraeus

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Head of the Serbian caretaker government Aleksandar Vucic met in Belgrade with a delegation of the U.S. investment fund KKR

t the meeting were "discussed the state of the Serbian economy, arrangements with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and new investments."

"Political stability is vital for economic growth," Vucic said, adding that Serbia would do "everything to maintain stability in the region."

Petraeus - a former CIA director, who is now a KKR partner and chairs the fund's Global Institute, "congratulated Vucic on his party's election victory, underlining that the fact that the victory has been secured after the reforms put in place shows Serbia is on the right track," the Serbian government reported in a statement.

It added that he "highlighted KKR is satisfied with their investments in the region, voicing hope the fund would soon broaden its investment portfolio, both in Serbia and the region."

Petraeus said at the beginning of the meeting that Vucic, with his "reelection" took on the obligation to pursue the path towards the EU.

Meeting with KKR delegation

"We believe that is the way for these countries to start implementing appropriate reforms. If this continues, we will invest even more," said Petraeus. On several occasions, representatives of Serbian authorities said there were "serious negotiations with the KKR in the context of resolving problem loans in Serbia."

Vucic talked with KKR representatives about ways to solve the issue of non-

Steel Mill Director Meets Chinese Ambassador Director of the steel mill Zelezara Smederevo Peter Kamaras talked with Chinese Ambassador Li Manchang about the pending activities in the acquisition of the Serbian plant by its new owner, China's He Steel Group, Zelezara Smederevo

Chinese Ambassador visits Smederevo steel mill

said in a release.

"The first step is to raise the output and the second blast furnace was restarted last Thursday. The next step is to reduce the production costs, new investments and new products that we will have in our offer. I also think that it would be important to bring young people, establish the cooperation between universities in Serbia and China and give them an opportunity to ensure a good life for themselves," Kamaras said.

The ambassador expressed his expectation that the concrete cooperation would start in a month's time and hope for good results. Li then toured the factory to learn about the steel-making process first-hand.

Dinar Slides Against Euro The dinar has again slid against the euro by 0.1 percent, taking the official middle exchange rate to RSD 122.8154, the central bank said in a release.

Against the single European currency, the dinar has dropped 0.1 percent in a

month, and 1.8 percent in a year.

The indicative dinar-versus-dollar rate held steady at RSD 107.6384.

Against the U.S. currency, the dinar has strengthened 0.2 percent in a month and weakened 0.2 percent in a year.

performing loans in Serbia, already tackled by the joint working groups of the finance ministry, central bank and KKR, the government's press office said.

The New York-based Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) has numerous investments in Serbia, including in the largest cable and internet operator SBB, Total TV, Grand, and Sport Club, N1, Cinemania, and Ultra TV channels.

IMF: Serbia's GDP Growth at 1.8 Percent The International Monetary Fund (IMF) kept Serbia's GDP growth forecast for this year at 1.8 percent, and for 2017 at 2.3 percent.

In its latest economic report on Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, the IMF forecasts a drop in the budget deficit from last year's 3.7 percent to 3.6 percent of GDP and its further slide to 2.7 percent in 2017.

In 2014, the budget deficit stood at 6.6 percent of GDP. As for Serbia's public debt, the IMF notes that in 2014 it totaled 72 percent of GDP, then jumped to 77.4 percent last year, and is expected to reach 78.9 percent of GDP this year, and then slide to 77.9 percent of GDP in 2017.

This week, the European Commission has raised its forecast for Serbia's GDP growth in 2016 from 1.6 to 2 percent.

No institution has included the privatization of the steel mill Zelezara Smederevo into their forecast, for which China's He Steel will pay EUR 46 million.

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Elections Put Serbia's EU Future on Thorny Path

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Some see the election results as a failed attempt to win absolute power and others expect the new government to face a tougher-to-handle parliament on EU accession and other issues in the future

hile Serbian Progressive party called the election victory a confirmation of the path of European Union (EU) reforms, some see the results as a failed attempt to win absolute power and others expect the new government to face a tougher-tohandle parliament on EU accession and other issues in the future.

Vucic, hoping that Serbia will finish all relevant reforms by 2019 and enter EU in 2020, referred to the elections as a test of people's willingness to continue with reforms and EU negotiations.

To Dusan Janjic, political analyst and director of the Forum for Ethnic Relations in the Balkans, the elections are not an "EU referendum," but an attempt of the ruling party to strengthen rule and reconstruct government, both of which, however, did not entirely go as planned and have been only partially fulfilled by final election results.

New Coalition Sociologist Milan Nikolic told Xinhua that he believed the Progressive Party had expected 50 percent or even 60 percent of the votes based on previous polls, so Vucic wanted to take Socialists, a smaller coalition partner led by Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic, out of the government, in order to form a new coalition with some even smaller parties or minority parties.

by Nemanja Cabric and Wang Huijuan Xinhua

Moreover, Nikolic does not see EU membership as the main future goal of the government, and instead he believes the fresh mandate will be to continue "unpopular austerity measures, restrictive economic reforms and cutting the number of employees in public sector," which are demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

"EU is a carrot on a long stick. The process is going to take long time," Nikolic said.

Many believe that the opposition in this term, which will include not only pro-EU parties, but also anti-EU, pro-Russian farright ones, will be much harder to deal with for Vucic.

"Aleksandar Vucic got a tougher parliament after the elections and is now forced to cope with the right-wing Radical Party and the Democratic Party of Serbia," said Zoran Panovic, a journalist with the Danas daily newspaper.

Bosko Jaksic, a commentator of the Politika daily newspapers, said that Vucic secured mandate for Serbia's EU integration, but "paid a price" for it.

"With the victory of the Serbian progressive party, Aleksandar Vucic has secured a strong mandate for the policy of European integration and ever-

Serbian Government building

tougher economic reforms, but the most persuasive result in the history of the Serbian multi-party system in the past 26 years was paid with lost MP seats and the monopoly of pro-EU parties who ran the parliament in the previous term," he wrote in an article.

According to Janjic, Serbia's future parliament will "reflect more realistically the country's reality" after these elections.

The reality, according to him, includes the renewed Radical Party, known for extreme anti-European views and proRussian orientation, and several strong Eurosceptic parties of the far-right that will oppose Vucic.

Change of Constitution Vucic said on April 29 that "Serbian EU path depends on the change of its constitution by 2018," for which he will need a two-third majority in the parliament, which is 167 out of 250 votes. With only 131 seats won by his coalition in the elections, Vucic will have to make compromises to secure Serbia's EU future.

Nikolic told Xinhua that a change to the Serbian Constitution is needed due to the preamble concerning Serbia's south province of Kosovo. The current constitution, adopted in 2006, defines Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia, although the province declared independence in 2008, which Serbia categorically refuses to recognize.

Nikolic doubts that the austerity measures and the "belt tightening" policies proposed by IMF, the World Bank and EBRD will lead to economic growth or higher employment.

"In a national economy like ours, which is not export-oriented but oriented to domestic market, if you reduce salaries and pensions you will decrease local demand, and this cannot lead to growth and increased employment," he explained.

In his opinion, priority of the future government should be achieving economic growth, and increasing employment, with greater attention paid to the industry and agriculture that "have good chances."

Janjic, however, believes that Vucic's priorities should be to clearly set the country's future path whether towards EU reforms or on cooperation with Russia.

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Fab(RIK)ation of People's Will?

Ivan Ninic, member of the Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) in capacity of a representative of the Enough is Enough - Sasa Radulovic movement, gave his opinion on recent parliamentary elections in Serbia to The Balkanist

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he Republic Electoral Commission (RIK) was unable to announce the results of the Serbian parliamentary elections for four days. Why? Because on April 24, it was Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic who personally 'counted' the ballots. However, he failed to match his counting results and his wish to place the Dveri-DSS coalition below the five percent threshold with the number of ballots in sacks and the minutes of local electoral boards. This is the key reason why on Wednesday, May 4, voting was repeated at 15 polling stations.

Post-electoral collapse in Serbia unfolded the moment our "multi-practice" prime minister Vucic "processed" 77 percent of the electoral body, even before the RIK ever did. Vucic reliably (as always) announced that three political options definitely did not make the threshold (DJB, SDS-LSV-LDP, Dveri-DSS), as if that was simply a matter of fact.

According to the Prime Minister, these were "the most peaceful elections with least number of irregularities in the past 25 years".

Vucic's ingenious media manipulation ability was institutionally supported by none other than his party official and President of RIK, Dejan Djurdjevic. On the same evening, during the media conference that was held half an hour after midnight, Djurdjevic announced the first preliminary results based on the processed sample of 27.15 percent of the electoral body. Miraculously, Djurdjevic's "counting" had the same preliminary results as Vucic's - DJB, SDS-LSV-LDP and Dveri-DSS were below the threshold.

Turning Point Unlike the DJB political movement, which was then above six percent, the remaining two political options - SDSLSV-LDP (5.04 percent) and Dveri-DSS (5 percent) - were "treading" the thin threshold line. At that particular moment (April 26) results from 164 polling stations (1.95 percent) had yet to be processed.

It was clear that each of those nonprocessed polling stations and each ballot could mark a turning point, since the Dveri-DSS coalition were just 170 votes above the threshold.

There were two ways this controversial 1.96 percent or 164 voting stations could "manually" place the Dveri-DSS coalition below the threshold in four

Ivan Ninic

days. Of course, Vucic had complete knowledge and total control over both of them.

The first way was to annul elections at a certain number of voting stations. This was done in quite an unusual "cowboy" way. It was enough for RIK to schedule and perform voting on a few falsified and backdated complaints of "worried" voters. This happened despite the fact that Djurdjevic had previously made a public announcement that only two complaints had been received within the legally set deadline.

Instead of the expected repetition of the voting process at two voting stations (Vranje and Jagodina), in the end, a total of 15 voting station results were annulled, totalling 19,631 eligible voters. This annulment proceeded "smoothly", since the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) provided the majority of votes for each and every one of the decisions made by RIK. The second way to place the 'Dveri-DSS' coalition below the threshold was for RIK to verify or annul a certain number of problematic results from some polling stations. How? The problem ensued after statisticians working at the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia established that it is impossible to feed the balloting software with results from some 164 voting stations, as the electoral board's minutes were a mess.

Light and Heavy Errors In some of them, the number of ballots did not match; in others, the number of people who voted and the number of used ballots did not match; and in others still, there were more ballots in the

ballot box than there should have been.

In some cases, the minutes pertaining to results at certain voting stations did not even exist. Statisticians labeled these errors as either "light" or "heavy".

Members of RIK decided on either verification or annulment of these errors by voting. These decisions were, in fact, made by outvoting. Both of these processes are susceptible to abuse and personal discretion. Political power is in the hands of those who have a majority in RIK, and this is currently SNS together with its satellite partners.

The majority of RIK members took the position that even at those voting stations where minutes of the electoral board that counted the ballots were missing, voting should be verified based solely on the sack that contained ballots. Yet the contents of these sacks could have been changed numerous times over the previous four days. RIK decided to overtake jurisdiction of the electoral boards, which was not the case in previous years. The ballots from the voting stations that should have been annulled were counted. The same was done with ballots from voting stations with minutes without signatures of electoral board members.

The farce of vote counting is nearing the finish line, and what is clear to everyone is that the will of the people is not of great interest to Vucic. He is counting ballots in sacks the way it suits him and is retailoring election results in a way that will provide the future People's Parliament the structure that pleases him.

If we do not protest the retailoring of the will of the people now - our votes will be rigged at the next elections too.

S e r b i a D a i l y, M a y 9 , 2 0 1 6

10

INTERVIEW

Serbs Imposed to get Killed or be Traitors

E

Momcilo Pavlovic, historian, director of Institute for Modern History, speaks to Vecernje Novosti newspaper about the Day of Victory, independence of Kosovo, chetniks and partisans, new world order‌

verywhere in the world today, the Victory Day is celebrated. Yet, contemporary events relativize so many things that came to be after the WWII. Pavlovic says that more wars have been fought since WWII than ever before. He says that the way we see that war has been "Westernized".

"First, one of the allies, USSR and the East block has been labeled as an ideological adversary, and then it has been defeated at the end of Cold War. Historical facts, however, tell us that the key victories have been won by USSR's Red Army. The western view is that Soviets entering Berlin committed uncounted rapes. Only recently some historians are opening rape cases committed by western armies. That is just one example of relative views on WWII" he says at the beginning of interview.

Is the world still divided into political blocs?

The World has been polarized. The winning block is directing crises over the planet, but Russia, power rising again, no longer abides by their rules. This will lead to new confrontations unless reason prevails.

There are different views on the war that took place here in 1941-1 1945. How much it was a civil war, and how much it was a liberation war against fascism?

War within Yugoslavian territories has been "four in one", liberating, civil, ideological and religious. Local colours, local leaders, looters, armed people ruling their justice... no one really wanted union except communists in WWII. Only two movements were antifascist in their essence - Ravnogorski (Chetniks) of Draza Mihailovic, and Partisans of camarad Broz. Their early collaboration freed a spacious territory like nowhere in occupied Europe. Those parties clashed later, unfortunately, resulting in a civil war. And this war is fought by various means even today.

After all this time, is it a nonsense to rehabilitate those who lost the war?

Rehabilitation of the Chetnik movement came as a result of the fall of socialism and its winning ideology. Capitalism demands new view to a history and people whose assets have been "nationalized". Those were neither Chetniks nor Partisans, they simply did

Momcilo Pavlovic

not want to take sides. But there has to be some dividing line. It is difficult to decide who was a traitor, and who was not, judging by contemporary values.

Who shouldn't be rehabilitated?

You cannot rehabilitate ones who actively, not existentially, participated in collaboration with the occupation.

Existential collaboration is different.

When Germans occupied two small British Isles, Churchill advised to follow German rules. Such collaborationists were decorated after the war for saving their people. An ideological matrix has been forced on Serbs, to die or to be traitors. Merely 52 Danes died in WWII, and in Serbia 350.000 people lost their lives. What is so wrong about us?! Both Great Wars had devastating consequences to Serbian demographic and biological entity. It is our fault, but also geography, history, movements, chaos had their part.

There is an ongoing revision of history.

How is that happening in Serbia, and how in Croatia?

Talking about revising history, it is some-

thing that does not exist in serious historiography, there are only proofs. If someone proves that Jasenovac was not Yugoslav Auschwitz, if documents are found which confirm that there was no intention to kill Serbs just for being Serbs, to eliminate Roma and Jews because of Nazi reasons, then we should accept such a truth. But there has to be hard evidence, not opinions.

Why EU today celebrates united Europe, and not the Day of Victory?

Europe celebrates Day of European Union and not Victory Day in order not to insult Germany. Nationalism is growing in Europe, especially in critical regions. But that is fascism. Nationalism is present in Balkans, since one nationalism supports another. Sponsored independence of Kosovo can destabilize Macedonia and Montenegro. We are small, and chauvinism which leads to fascism is characteristic of large nations. Why does not EU paint this black hole into blue? Parallel negotiations with Kosovo and Serbia lead to Kosovo's independence.

S e r b i a D a i l y, M a y 9 , 2 0 1 6

11

Bad Experience in Serbia Turns UK Player into Activism It is coming up to four years since England's players were racially abused and attacked in a 1-0 victory in Serbia which sealed their place at the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. But that night in Krusevac, in October 2012, has left a lasting impression on Blackburn Rovers midfielder Jason Lowe

T

he shameful scenes, which saw England's black players, including current senior international Danny Rose, subjected to racist chants, before the whole team and coaching staff were dragged into a mass brawl, led to the Serbian FA being fined 65,000 pounds and the country being served with a one-match spectator ban.

And they also inspired the Rovers Academy graduate to get involved with Kick It Out. Lowe, who is in his third year as a 'Next 20' ambassador for football's equality and inclusion organisation, said: "That night in Serbia was the main reason why I joined up with Kick It Out. "I saw what happened that night with certain players and I just thought to myself, 'there is no room for this in sport'.

But it has to go beyond sport.

"I've never seen anything like that in my life. Not just in football, but being out on the street whether it's been when I've been out with my mates or out with my family.

"Grown adults behaving like that, I've

never seen anything like it before and I hope I never see anything like it again.

"So the more you get this message out there to a wider audience the better."

Lowe does that by attending schools in the local area alongside former Charlton Athletic and England U21 international Paul Mortimer, who is now Kick It Out's professional players engagement manager.

The pair recently delivered an educational workshop to pupils in Year 4, 5 and 6 at Langho St Leonard's Primary School before Lowe was put on the spot with questions from the floor.

"I've done a few of these appearances now and Paul is great with me and helps me through them.

"He's brilliant at what he does in promoting it and educating the kids. It's enjoyable to put my face to it and help promote what Kick It Out is trying to do.

"It's great for the kids to learn and hopefully it puts something into their mind going forward.

"I still get the nerves when the kids are allowed to ask any question they want

at the end. You're not prepared for that.

But it's all good fun and it's something I enjoy doing it.

"I'm out of my comfort zone up there but I'll do anything I can to educate the kids and help them in some way when they're growing up.

"These workshops should help them become better educated, not just in sport, but for society in general, and become better people."

Mortimer added: "I think the work we do is crucial because some of these young people are like a blank canvas and can be influenced by certain things that they witness, experience and see on TV. "It's important for organisations like us to go into schools and give kids the chance to discuss their experiences openly and not fear judgement or reprisals.

"Some will say things which could be offensive or discriminatory but it's about making them aware of what they're saying and more importantly the reasons why, because often they're told why it's wrong, but it's never explained to them in a language they can understand."

Festival of Science and Education Held in Novi Sad The Festival of Science and Education, which the University of Novi Sad traditionally organizes on the campus, was opened over weekend by Zorana Luzanin, state secretary at the ministry of education, science and technological development.

The opening ceremony brought togeth-

er Novi Sad University Rector Dusan Nikolic, Provincial Secretary for Science and Technological Development Vladimir Pavlov, representatives of the Petroleum Industry of Serbia and Schneider Electric DMS that backed the festival.

The event welcomes a large number of young visitors, as it promotes science in

the most appealing way, Luzanin said.

The aim of the festival was to encourage children to pursue certain careers, notably those in high demand such as robotics and control engineering, the rector said.

The Festival of Science and Education took place over the weekend, offering over 60 workshops.

TODAY IN THEATRES WHEN THE PUMPKINS BLOSSOMED

Drama Author: DRAGOSLAV MIHAILOVIC Location: BELGRADE DRAMA THEATRE Time: 20:00hrs

OTELLO

Author: SHAKESPEARE Location: YUGOSLAV DRAMA THEATRE Time: 20:00hrs

LOLITA

MASTERS, MASTERS

Author: VLADIMIR NABOKOV

Author: GORAN MARKOVIC

Location: MADLENIANUM,

Location: UK "VUK" -

Zemun - SMALL STAGE

ALEKSANDAR POPOVIC STAGE

Time: 20:00hrs

Time: 20:00hrs

NEW IN CINEMAS

Cineplex - TC Usce Bulevar Mihajla Pupina 4

17:00 21:00 20:30 22:00 22:30

Zootopia Captain America Mr. Right Hunter and Ice Queen Clan

Takvud Cineplex Kneza Milosa 7 17:00 Book on Jungle 3D 20:30 Bourek 18:30 Hunter and Ice Queen 22:00 Mother's Day

WEATHER OUTLOOK Favorable biometeorology situation is expected, which will benefit chronically ill and vulnerable people. Heart patients are advised to follow the doctor's advice and reduce the physical effort.

Meteopathic reactions are possible in a milde form.

Dom sindikata

Decanska 14 18:15 Book on Jungle 3D 18:00 Criminal Mind 20:00 Bourek

Cineplex - Delta City Jurija Gagarina 16/16A 18:20 Bourek 20:30 Mr. Right 22:30 Clan

Roda Cineplex Pozeska 83a 20:00 Mother's Day 21:00 Captain America 22:15 Mr. Right

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